Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Brazil 2-0 Zambia: Oscar inspires Selecao to fourth successive win

Brazil racked up their fourth successive victory by beating Zambia 2-0 in a friendly fixture in Beijing on Tuesday.

Luiz
Felipe Scolari's men were far from their fluent best but, after a
goalless first half, Chelsea midfielder Oscar came off the bench to open
the scoring with a deflected effort.

Shortly after, the game was put beyond all doubt when Dede notched his first international goal with a close-range header.

Liverpool
midfielder Lucas Leiva was handed his first start in nearly two years,
while Alexandre Pato and Lucas Moura were also given opportunities.

Patrice
Beaumelle was in the dugout for Zambia, after taking control on an
interim basis following the departure of Herve Renard to Sochaux.

Brazil
almost made an electric start in the third minute when Neymar's sublime
free kick rebounded off the crossbar. Shortly after, his Barcelona
team-mate Daniel Alves hit a half-volley that narrowly drifted over the
bar.

On the 15-minute mark a clever one-two between Ramires and
Neymar led to the Chelsea midfielder going one-on-one with Kennedy
Mweene only to ultimately put his effort just wide of the post.

Emmanuel
Mayuka was lively up front for Zambia without causing any real issues
for the Brazilian defence and only had a tame effort which was held by
Diego Cavalieri.

Neymar should have put Brazil ahead in the 37th
minute when he looped a header wide from Maxwell's delivery when
unmarked in the box. And he was again thwarted on the stroke of
half-time with Mweene parrying his left-footed effort for a corner as
the sides went in level at the break.

Brazil started the second
half in lacklustre fashion with Scolari visibly frustrated on the
sidelines. David Luiz did go close with a 25-yard free kick but his
effort was smartly parried away by Mweene.

However, the deadlock was finally broken in the 59th minute, courtesy of substitute Oscar.
The Chelsea midfielder cut inside Mayuka on the left before hitting a
20-yard effort that took a huge deflection off Chisambu Lungu and looped
over Mweene into the far corner.

As Zambia tired, the game was put beyond doubt in the 66th minute when Dede pulled away from his marker to head home Neymar's free kick from six yards.

Buoyed
by their quick-fire double, Brazil continued to push for a third and
Oscar should have done so in the dying stages when after a flowing move
he curled an effort straight at Mweene.

But the miss made no
difference to the final outcome as Brazil extended their winning run to
four matches. Scolari will now look ahead to Brazil's friendly clash
with Honduras in Miami in November.